Jeff Ryan and Tami Thomson stand in front of a mural in Deep Ellum on Friday, Dec. 3, 2022, in Dallas, Texas. Photography by Emil Lippe.
On Nov. 18, 2019, Deep Ellum drummer Chad Lovell suffered a fall in his home that left him in a coma ever since. The Dallas music community has been quick to rally around him and his family, organizing fundraisers and raising awareness for his critical condition.
Many of the individuals spearheading support for the Lovell family were the same folks on Deep Ellum’s cutting-edge punk rock scene in the 1990s, a scene that Lovell helped develop.
Among those is guitarist Mike Graff, who played with Lovell in Course Of Empire, an iconic Dallas rock band that pushed the boundaries of live music into borderline performance art by involving audience members in playing with the band.
When it comes to a Chad Lovell project, the only way to do that is through the drums.
“We started gathering up all these old oil drums and sticks,” Graff says. “And started writing music around the idea of passing the drums from the stage into the crowd and turning over control of the show to the audience.”
The bold concept took off like wildfire, quickly changing Course Of Empire from a fun rock band into a must-see.
“We were able to embody this very democratic notion of involving the audience, dissolving the line between performer and audience,” Graff says.
Course Of Empire kept drumming until the gimmick got too big to continue.
“As the crowds grew, eventually there were so many people in the room that the drums couldn’t fit between people, and people started throwing them around like beach balls,” Graff says.
Still, the band continued playing together until 1998 before splitting to pursue other projects. Lovell transitioned to become a prolific sound engineer and producer in Dallas until his untimely accident in 2019.
On Nov. 11, 2022, the Toadies headlined a sold-out benefit show to raise money for the Lovell family at House of Blues Dallas. The show featured a charity auction with autographed instruments from local musicians and a surprise vinyl reissue of Course of Empire’s 1994 album, Initiation.
Filling out the bill, classic Dallas band Doosu came together for a rare reunion with Graff on guitar.
Also in attendance was fellow Dallas drummer Jeff Ryan, who has played with St. Vincent and Daniel Johnston. Ryan was among the many figures in the Deep Ellum rock movement in the ’90s, along with Lovell and Graff.
“It was just a very amazing communal vibe for the Toadies’ show, everyone from all different facets of the music industry coming together to help raise money for Chad in one way or another,” Ryan says. “Seeing folks that I’ve been friends with for close to 30 years coming together was really special; it was a great night.”
Searching for ways to keep Lovell’s artistic spirit alive, Graff dug deep into the archives.
“I went back and found Chad’s first recording with the band and pressed it on vinyl,” he says. “It’s a way to give people something to hold in their hands that represents Chad.”
The album Fields Of Discipline is a mastered compilation from early Course Of Empire recordings in 1989. All material featured on the record was previously unheard.
“The idea that Chad represents as a drummer, of handing the drums to the audience,” Graff says. “That’s really his artistic legacy.”
